Where do you stand?

Will Windows 8 be a failure?

On November 12th, just over a fortnight after launching the new version of its Windows operating system, Microsoft said that Steven Sinofsky, the executive in charge of its Windows division, was leaving the company. Precisely why, no one outside the company seems to know. But some analysts have started wondering whether Windows 8 will be a failure. Others say it is too early to tell. What do you think? Will Windows 8 be a failure?

All I can say is Windows 8 I hate it. I have been a Windows promoter since DOS but have recently started looking at Apple. My recent purchase of a laptop with Windows 8 may be my last. Since my purchase in early January I have tried to like the new Windows tiles but I don't.. My only hope is the Microsoft will give us a new operating system that is familiar and updated..

Just returned a brand new laptop with windows 8. Have spent the past 10 hours trying configure a absolute software nightmare. It is the worst operating system ever invented. I don't want to touch my monitor, I don't want to have a 50 "tiles" on my a secondary desk top. Also, our CRM software won't parse with outlook 2013 and you can't run outlook 2010 (which is a MUCH better product) with Office 2013. Which by the way looks as bland and generic as a whiteboard.

who cares. i bought a macbook pro + office suite for mac and never looked back. no more virus, worms or pc crawling to a halt with no apparent reason. it just works like an appliance with zero maintenance, like you'd expect from a washing machine or a toaster. and with the office suite i can exchange documents with anyone that has a pc so i get the best of both worlds. to run stuff that is not mac compatible i use virtualbox which is free. os is W8 a failure ? meh. who cares.

Microsoft you have failed long time users like me (since 98) and I give up.
If Amiga was still a viable option, it would make me happy, but for now, Apple provide everything I need. I don't like the changes in Mountain Lion though. STOP MESSING WITH WHAT WORKS YOU INSANE FOOLISH COMPANIES! Serve the people, not yourselves, and you will have a market forever. Peace x

I installed windows 8 on two computers - one desktop and one laptop. It was the most frightening digital experience I have ever had. It has nothing to do with a learning curve. Windows 8 is a bug proned, poorly designed, terminally frustrating OS. Since Windows 8 cannot just simply be unintsalled, I had to do a clean reinstall of Windows 7 to get my computers back to a usable state and then add all of my backed up files and applications. It was like buying two new computers and starting from scratch. Windows 8 needs to be recalled - the product is that bad.

I've been an IT Director for 10 years and I'm a huge XP fan - but recently I've started loving Win 7. In fact, it's now my fav.

Enter Windows 8. Installed, then revereted back to Win 7. Windows 8 is a joke! Metro apps cannot run on NetBooks due to screen resolution (workarounds are available, but suck). I'm finding this hard to understand. Isn't Windows 8 on the new Windows Phones? If so, do the phones run MetroApps? Then a NetBook should too.

Overall, I found it hard to follow and if it's like that for me - I can imagine what it will be like for the average user. I can't say fail but I think it's a "Vista Like Flop".

I installed Win 8 and Office 8. Within four days I returned both products and returned to XP. Hideous, horrible bit of naked greed on the part of MS. They'd have to nail me to the wall before I'll try another version of their "updated" OS. I hear 7 is good, but the old motto "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," applies here for me. Arrogance leads to destruction. Look at GM.

Really? That's actually kind of interesting. Haven't been paying attention, but after installing 8 on my NetBook, I'm less than impressed. But to be 100% honest, I was less than impressed with 7 when I installed it for the first time - but I love it now. Guess these things kind of grow on you when you realize you don't have many options!

Microsoft's Mistakes in thinking. 1) They saw apple making billions off the iPad store and wanted that. 2) They wanted the O.S running on the tablet to be the same on the PC so the software would seamlessly work on both. Ok, not bad at first appearance but look closer. No developer wants a touch interface or anyone touching their screen while they work. No gamer wants anyone in front or on the screen while they play games. There has never been a great touch interface MMO, first person shooter, etc. Only simple stupid apps work for that. So they converted their entire user interface to work like a tablet when the majority of PC users don't want that. This will be their undoing and businesses will never adopt it nor will any gamer. Next - add the cost of adding a touch screen and the cost goes up an all laptops (not referring to the cost of the tablets which Microsoft will lose money on for every one sold - Dell and others won't take a loss to sell the o.s). So the Windows 8 PC version won't make it. It's completely designed to be touch oriented and geared towards the casual tablet user.

Totally agree. Couldn't imagine greasy fingers on an Excel spreadsheet, four inch square icons on a 30" screen, and a direct channel to the Microsoft store. Vista, Windows 7, and now Windows 7 all lost the amazing vision held by Microsoft previously. The project manager who brought us the ribbons should be sent to hell.

I'm ui/ux designer and i can tell, that windows 8 doesn't feels like something what is finished. either desktop or modern ui part of windows 8 are really good. As professional you need just to much time when working with windows 8. You change all the time between desktop for work and modern ui for starting application. The missing of start on desktop is an absolute fail and the idea of some designers which try hard to push the user to use the modern ui.
Also i think that the autobahn sign component of modern ui doesn't work good as interface. We look all the time in a depth space. With windows 8 we have to look all the time at flat space. Also everything looks the same. Is hard to make a difference are you looking on calendar, email or skydrive. Everything looks the same.

Windows 8 maybe a success maybe not, but even if it is failure this will not change the fact that lot people will buy it or obtain it for free. This company customers base are mentally controlled(I am one of them). Without thinking, we just buy it, sadly :/

Imagine this approach for win 8 instead of what they did: optimize code and improve existing functions (as they are said to have done) from win 7, BUT, instead of Metro it could just develop the sidepanel to work with MS phone and tablet apps. Same icons, so it will be recognizeable, and as they have their own hardware platforms they are thoroughly developed (unlike the widgets/gadets). This way the intergration of the different platforms would be to the benefit of the users of all platforms and MS might actually help itself along the way to tablet/phone relevance, and thats without annoying PC users.

BTW: If anyone from Microsoft reads this I am available to fill the void after Sinofsky. Don´t be shy.

I am certain that it will fail, although I do accept that it is a Marmite issue and that some people genuinely like it. Personally, I used the various beta versions for over a year and I still hate it on the desktop. Certainly Windows should evolve, but to clumsily integrate two different interfaces together purely in order to force users to "get used" to the new look so that they buy tablets with the same interface is insulting. Windows has an enormous base of users who are familiar with certain conventions - but now to insert a scenario where those users will occasionally be dumped into an entirely different interface is a recipe for confusion and frustration. It will mean that millions of departmental staff will need to be retrained which will be costly for any company (and for what benefit?), all purely as a result of Microsoft's panic about missing out on the tablet and phone shares.

I have been predicting Sinofsky and Ballmer would both be sacked as the failure was backed up by hard numbers, but even I was surprised that Sinofsky was ejected quite so quickly - I thought that wouldn't happen until the SUmmer of 2013 at least. Once the failure is publicly acknowledged by Microsoft then they will need to backtrack to remove this source of alienation among their user base, so expect a rapid transition to Windows 9 which will have the whole Metro interface as completely optional, and with the restoration of the Start menu and Aero graphics. Metro could be OK on a phone or tablet, but the sheer stupidity of using it on the desktop has poisoned the whole experience for me.

As the head of software development at my company I have taken the unusual step of writing to all of my customers and advising them not to "upgrade" to Windows 8 as I think it will ultimately be an aberration that will hopefully be rectified within the next 3 years - that's up to whether the Microsoft board can be bold enough to appoint somebody who can see the problem and fix it. Also, I don't think that Microsoft are necessarily a spent force either as they have so much market share and experienced users, but they are certainly going through a phase of crisis (just as Apple did) where they (i.e. Ballmer) have allowed Sinofsky lead them down a wrong turn. I hope they survive and get it together - I have previously evangelised Microsoft technologies and I would be happy to do so again - but Windows 8 is a bad product which is doing the company a lot of harm.

The artbirary colours of the boxed have no rational, and there is no obvious heirachy in the navigation. It's like walking into a kitchen will pans, knives, and everything else scattered across the floor without being in logical places. The colours should aid navigation instead of looking like a bowl of pick-and-mix sweets; it could be done and keep good aesthetics.